In order to impart softness, smoothness, crease resistance, elongation recovery and water repellency to fibrous materials of, natural fibers such as cotton, flax, silk, wool, angora, and mohair; regenerated fibers such as rayon and bemberg; semisynthetic fibers such as acetate; synthetic fibers such as polyester, polyamide, polyacrylonitrile, polyvinyl chloride, vinylon, polyethylene, polypropylene, and Spandex.RTM.; and inorganic fibers such as glass fiber, carbon fiber and silicon carbide fiber, emulsions are used having an average particle size of 0.3 micrometers, these microemulsions are obtained by the emulsification of organopolysiloxanes using an emulsifying device such as a homogenizer, colloid mill, line mixer or propeller mixer wherein one or more anionic, cationic, nonionic or amphoteric surfactants are used. The use is also known of emulsions having an average particle size of 0.3 micrometers which are obtained by the emulsion polymerization of dimethylpolysiloxane cyclics as shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 44-20116.
Emulsions produced by the above methods, with their average particle size of 0.3 micrometers, have unsatisfactory stability in fiber treatments, they also have an unsatisfactory stability with regard to dilution dilution with water, and an unsatisfactory stability when used in combination with various additives (blending stability). As a consequence, these emulsions undergo de-emulsification, creating serious problems such as the organopolysiloxane floating on the treatment bath and appearing as drops of oil on the fibrous material (oil spots).
The object of the present invention is to eliminate the above problems by providing a fiber treatment agent which, having as its main silicone component, an organopolysiloxane microemulsion produced by emulsion polymerization which has excellent mechanical, dilution, and blending stabilities on the part of the emulsion, and which does not produce oil spots.